Seeing people behind the news

Because of his experience, he was asked about the current attention directed at the parents of Chandra Levy, the intern missing from Washington, D.C. In reply, Mr. Kaczynski commented about what it's like to become a news story instead of a human being.

"There is such a disconnect between the public curiosity and the human pain involved," he said. "I try to imagine what the Levy family is going through. It has to be incredibly painful to be in the limelight when you're in the worst period of your life."

If anyone knows, it is Mr. Kaczynski, whose private life was invaded as a result of his brother's deadly actions and his own decision to bring his brother to justice. In such circumstances, human beings can be reduced to cartoons or one-liners. Too easily, gossip and guesswork replace getting to know and understand the real people caught up in too real dramas.

What helps those real people get through their tribulation, said Mr. Kaczynski, are messages from those who can turn their eyes away from the media circus in order to sympathize with the human beings who are too often forgotten.

"Lots of people wrote to me and my family [during our ordeal] to say they were praying for us," he told The Evangelist. "That was tremendously comforting. It reminded me of the emotional and spiritual connection between human beings, and the power it has to create healing and help people who are in trouble and in pain."

Anyone who has spent too much of the summer following what has become the soap opera of the Levy situation would do well to reflect on Mr. Kaczynski's experience.

(08-09-01)